Fetching Features: a look at former Superintendent Mark Henson

Have you ever had a goal that you wished to achieve? Something became a driving force in your life as it took a point of focus. It may have been that you wanted to become something, maybe a firefighter, an astronaut, or a soldier. You strove to follow that dream, to grow closer to that goal. The achievement was your motivation.

For some, at least.

Many people will recall the nearly 30 years Mark Henson spent as the Superintendent of Fannin County Schools teaching and influencing the kids of Fannin County. Many may think of this as a life well spent. Henson himself would agree, but it was not always so.

Growing up among a family of educators, Henson knew the life well before he even graduated high school. It was part of the reason he struggled so hard against it. While it may seem like 30 years in the career isn’t the best evasion strategy, Henson says it came down to logic as to why he finally gave in.

After high school graduation, he took his goal of avoidance instead of achievement to heart. “If you go back and look at my high school annual, my ambition was to do anything but teach school because everybody in my family at that time, were teachers,” says Henson as he explains attending the University of Georgia shortly before moving back to Blue ridge to work for the Blue Ridge Telephone Company.

Spending about a year at the job after college didn’t work out. Henson doesn’t speak much on the topic as he says his father knew someone working for Canada Dry in Athens. With a job opening available and good pay to entice him, Henson made the switch to working for the soda company.

Moving to Athens, Henson became an RC/Canada Dry Salesperson over the surrounding five counties in Athens. A hard job that required many hours, Henson said he’d be at work at 6 a.m. and got back home at 8:30 p.m. Though well-paying, the job fell flat for Henson as he came to terms with the long hours and little time for himself. With two years under his belt at the company, he began thinking about Blue Ridge again and his options. As he says, “Teaching didn’t look so bad then.”

Despite the years in opposition, the effort spent running away from the ‘family business,’ Henson began thinking ahead at the rest of his life. Already considering retirement at the time, it was this that ultimately turned his attention back to teaching. It wasn’t family, it wasn’t friends, but rather, it was logic that drew him to the career his life’s ambition avoided.

“I made pretty good money, there just wasn’t any retirement,” says Henson about his time at Canada Dry. As he looked harder at teaching and began seriously considering the career path, he says, “When you look at teachers, you’re never going to get rich being a teacher, but there’s a lot of benefits like retirement and health insurance that these other jobs just didn’t have.” He also notes he proved what he wanted as he retired at 54-years-old.

After much thought, it began with a call to his father, Frank Henson. He told his father he wanted to come home and pursue teaching. Though his father told him to come home and stay with them again, Henson says it was the money he had saved from his position at Canada Dry that allowed him to attend school for a year before being hired as a para-pro, a paraprofessional educator. It was a very busy time in his life as Henson states, “I would go up there and work until 11:30, and then I would work 12 to 4 at what used to be the A&P in McCaysville. I went to school at night…”

The next few years proved to be hectic as he graduated and started teaching professionally “with a job I wasn’t even certified for.” It was January of 1989 and the new school superintendent had been elected in November and as he took office in January he left a gap in the school. To fill the Assistant Principal position the, then, Superintendent had left, they promoted the teacher of the career skills class. With the vacancy in the classroom, Henson was appointed to step in to teach the class. Half a year was spent teaching a career path and skill class to 9th graders in what Henson refers to as a “foreign world.”

The first full-time teaching position he holds was perhaps the one he was least qualified for. Henson noted his nervousness taking the state-funded program. The previous teacher had gone to the University of Georgia to receive training to fill the position. Talking with the previous teacher about the class, Henson shared his reservations about the lack of training and certification. Receiving note cards and guidance on how to handle it helped, but only so far.

Henson recalled looking at the cards and seeing tips like, “Talk about work ethic for 20 minutes.” He was stuck in a position without a firm foundation. He spent the next semester “winging it” and juggling the class with student placement in businesses. Struggling through the day to day at the time, he now looks back and says, “Apparently, I did pretty good at it.”

The interesting part was that the promotions that led him into this position similarly mirrored Henson’s own path to Superintendent one day. An omen easily looked over at the time, but glaringly obvious in hindsight. Though he wouldn’t take the direct path from Teaching to Assistant Principal to Superintendent, they did set the milestones that he would hit on his way.

He also saw plenty of doubt on his way, too. He never looked at the Superintendent position as a goal, but even maintaining a teaching position seemed bleak as he was called into the office one day and told his career class position was no longer being funded.

Thinking he was losing his job, he began considering other opportunities as well as missed options, he had just turned down a position in Cartersville where Stacy, his wife, was teaching. Worrying for no reason, Henson says he was racing through these thoughts until they finally told him they were moving him to Morganton Elementary.

Taking up a Math and Social Studies teaching at Morganton Elementary, Henson found more familiar territory in these subjects. Yet, having gotten used to the career skills, he says he still felt like he was starting over again. The years proved later to be quite fortuitous as Henson says he still has people to this day stop him and talk about their time learning from him as students. Relating back to his own school years, he admits he wasn’t the best student and he made his own bad decisions.

From situations in band and class alike, he notes that he worked hard, usually sitting in first and second chair as he played the trombone, but he still found plenty of things to get into as he, by his own confession, “made the drum major’s lives and stuff miserable.” Enjoying every opportunity he could get to goof off, it became a trend throughout his school career.

Yet, in teaching, he brought those experiences and understanding to the kids as he tailored his classes each year. He shared one story of a girl that stopped him to speak for a while. Eventually, she asked, “You don’t remember me, do you?”

Admitting that he didn’t, she replied, “Well, you really helped me a lot. I was ADD and you would let me sit at your desk.” He says she went on talking about the way he changed her life.

It seems almost common now to associate teachers with stories like these, changing people’s lives, yet, it’s not often you may think a student causing trouble would become that kind of teacher.

The effort returned in a major way as Henson was elected Teach of the Year at Morganton Elementary in only his second year. The award was a testament to his efforts and success, but also evidence of how much he had changed in his life.

“You get out of school and you work a couple of real hard jobs, you see there might be more to life than goofing off. That got me redirected and helped me get through college and get my teaching degree,” says Henson.

It was more than just awards, though. Morganton Elementary created several relationships for Henson that followed him throughout his career and his life. spending four years at Morganton made it the longest position at the point, but it led to so much more. It led to three more years of teaching at East Fannin Elementary before receiving a promotion to Assistant Principal at West Fannin Middle School.

Moving from a position as a teacher to Assistant Principal isn’t just a promotion, it is a major change into school administration. No longer dealing with individual classes of students, Henson says it becomes far more political as you get pressed between teachers and parents. You walk a tightrope as you want to support your teachers in what they do, and you want to listen to concerned parents and find that middle ground. “You have got to kind of be a buffer between them… You’re always walking a tightrope,” he said.

He served as Assistant Principal to Principal David Crawford who served as Assistant Principal to his father, Frank Henson. Mentoring him in administration, he says David was a “laid back guy” that would still “let you have it” some days. It set him on a steep learning curve. Despite the jokes and stories, he led Henson on a quick path to his own education. In a sort of ‘sink or swim’ mentality, Henson said he was given a lot more authority than he expected, but he enjoyed the job.

How much he enjoyed it was a different point. Though Henson says he has never had a job in education he hated, he did say that his year as Assistant Principal was his “least-favorite job.” Though stressing he has enjoyed his entire career, he noted that the stress and shock of transitioning from Teaching to the Administration as a more big picture job factors into the thought.

Even that wasn’t meant to last long as he moved from Assistant Principal to Principal after just one year.

Nearing the end of his first, and only, year as Assistant Principal, he was called into the office again. This time it was the school systems office as his Superintendent at the time, Morgan Arp, wanted to speak with him. As he tells the story, “He said, ‘I’m looking at restructuring the system a little bit on principals and administrators. I’m not saying this is gonna happen, but if I made you Principal at East Fannin, would that be okay?’

I said, ‘Sure, I’ve been there and I know the people fine.’

He said, ‘What about West Fannin?’

I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been there a year, I can deal with that.’

He said, ‘What about Blue Ridge Elementary?’

I said, ‘Well, that’s the school I know the least. I’m sure if you put me in there, I could. But the other two make me feel a little more comfortable.’

So the next day I got a call, and I was principal for Blue Ridge Elementary.”

Though comical, Henson said it actually worked out great as he met two of his best colleagues there. Cynthia Panter later became an Associate Superintendent and Karen Walton later became his Assistant Superintendent. Both were teachers he met at Blue Ridge Elementary.

“Blue Ridge was really where I made a lot of later career relationships,” says Henson.

His time as Principal was also a lot easier for him as he says after the year at West Fannin he knew what he was doing and had more confidence in the position. Having ‘matured’ into the job, he says the Principal position has more latitude in decisions. Having a great staff at both schools made the job easier, but the transition was simpler also because he felt he was always second-guessing himself as an assistant principal. His maturity also gave him new outlooks on the choices and decisions made.

“I think a good administrator serves as a shield between the public and teachers who need someone in there to mediate,” he says. Molding things into a larger plan for the schools and taking views from all those who take a stake in their education, “Everybody wants what’s best for the child.”

Surrounding himself with assistant principals and administrators that were detail oriented to allow him to deal with people and focus on the ‘big picture,’ two of his favorite parts of his career as he says.

After three years at Blue Ridge Elementary, the Curriculum Director at the county office resigned. Applying on a fluke instinct, he later got a call saying he got the position. He joined the staff as K-6 Director of Curriculum alongside Sandra Mercier as 7-12 Director of Curriculum.

However, his time in the office saw much more work as he spent time covering as Transportation Director and other fill-in duties. It wasn’t until 2003 when Sandra Mercier took the office of Superintendent, according to Henson, that she named him as Assistant Superintendent and really began his time in the Superintendent position.

He had never thought about going for the position, applying, or even thinking of it. Henson said he did want to be a Principal, but the county offices were beyond his aspirations.

Largely different from transitioning from Teacher to Administrator, the transition into the Superintendent position was far easier says Henson. You’re already dealing with a lot of the same things on a single school scale, but moving to the Superintendent position crosses schools and districts. He did not there is a lot more PR involved, but nothing to the extreme change as he experienced his first year in administration.

Becoming Superintendent in 2007, he says he focused on opening the school system up and growing more transparent than it already was. Sharing information and speaking straight about his feelings allowed a certain connection with people. It seems, in truth, that he never quite outgrew some of the goofiness of his childhood as he recalls joking with colleagues and staff.

Henson says he wanted to have a good time in the office despite everything they dealt with. He pushed the staff, but they also played pranks on each other and shared moments like a school secretary embarrassing her daughter with a funny picture.

Noting one particular instance, Stacy recalls a story with finance running checks in the office. With one office member in particular who would always try to jump scare people running the check machine. Henson quickly opened the door and threw a handful of gummy bears at her. Unfortunately, a few were sucked into the machine and ruined the check run. It wasn’t a good day considering, yet the staff laughed about it and shared in the comedy.

A necessary part of the job is what Henson calls it. The lightheartedness was key to maintaining his staff. “If you stay serious a hundred percent of the time, it’s going to kill you,” he says.

The position wasn’t just laughter and jokes though, tough times came plenty enough. Not all of them were the expected issues that you might expect. Aside from the general politics that face schools daily in these times, Henson even dealt with death threats in his position. Having let people go and dealt with others careers, he admits he had that one employee’s spouse threated his life after a firing.

As he speaks about some of the hardest moments like this, it’s hard to find out how harrowing the event really was. Henson says now that it’s not a big deal, it wasn’t the only threat he had. His wife speaks a little more plainly as she confesses some days, she couldn’t tell if it was worth it for him to be the Superintendent. Yet, even she says in hindsight that she is proud of the honesty, integrity, and openness that permeated his ten years.

Additionally, dealing with things like the shootings and issues that have plagued schools in the last decade, he adds, “It’s a more stressful job than when I started 30 years ago. It’s much more stressful. There are so many things that the state expects, that locals expect, that parents expect… I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in another 30 years.”

Henson agreed that schools have lost a lot of the innocence they used to have within the teachers and staff. As these people continue to rack their brains on following the mission to educate and keep kids safe, they take a lot of the stress off the kids as they are at school. He said, “I don’t know if it’s spelled out, but I think if you’re a good teacher, you feel that inherently.”

It also branched over into policies, with increased focus on testing and numbers, Henson said the position got a lot more into the realm of politics as you deal with the state legislature and handling the constant changes that came from the state adds another item to juggle.

As a superintendent, you don’t need state tests, as Henson says, to tell you how well a teacher teaches. “I can sit in a class for five minutes and tell you if a teacher can teach.”

In the face of everything, Henson said he wouldn’t burn any bridges about returning to education, but he’s enjoying his retirement.

Henson has already reached the “what’s next” point in his career as he retired last year. One year into retirement, he says he is just as busy as ever with his position on the Board of Tax Assessors and putting a daughter through college at the University of Georgia. On top of maintaining his own projects, he says he’s focusing on being a parent and husband and making up for time lost in his position as Superintendent.

Once he hit ten years in the office, Henson said he felt like he had done what he wanted, it was time to hand it over to someone else for their impressions and interpretations. Though retiring from his career, he didn’t fade into obscurity. With Stan Helton asking him to sit on the Board of Tax Assessors and others still seeking advice and counsel, he simply transitioned once more.

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Former Cherokee County NC Teacher Arrested for Sex Acts with Student

Murphy, NC— Sheriff Derrick Palmer announced the June 7th, 2018 arrest of Kayla Alayne Sprinkles, a 26 year old Hayesville North Carolina woman for a sexual assaults on a student.

On or about March 26th, 2018 the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into a report that Kayla Sprinkles, had engaged in sex acts with a student while employed as a teacher in a high school for the Cherokee County Schools System. During the investigation several search warrants were executed in which items of evidence were collected. Additionally numerous individuals were interviewed who provided information relevant to the case. The HAVEN Child Advocacy Center assisted in some of the interviews due to the age of the individuals interviewed.

Information was presented to the June 04th, 2018 Cherokee County Grand Jury which handed down a five count indictment for Sex Activity With a Student. Apparently Sprinkles gained knowledge, possibly through a social media posting, of the existence of the indictments and left from the local area and surrendered herself to the Mecklenburg County Detention Center where she was served with the indictments and was released on a $25,000.00 unsecure bond. Sprinkles is expected to be in Cherokee County Superior Court on July 02, 2018.

Sheriff Derrick Palmer stated “Our youth and our students are one of the greatest resources that Cherokee County is blessed to have. It is incumbent upon all of us to ensure their safety and wellbeing as they grow and mature.”

Due to the nature of the crime and the age of the victim no further information will be released concerning this incident.

To report suspicious activity and suspect violations of the law please call 828-837-3144 or submit a tip at crime.tips@cherokeecounty-nc.gov.

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Marc Urbach 6/13/16

Constitutional expert, Supreme Court expert, maybe the best in the republic pertaining to how the Court unconstitutionally removed FIVE religious freedoms from the schools and society. A man who believes in republican principles, loyal & dedicated Orthodox Jew, former teacher, journalist and author of “BELIEVE, Do We Need a Third Great Awakening”

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Town Hall, Fannin Teachers concerned with Vague answers on Merit Pay

Fannin County educators welcomed the opportunity to speak to Georgia’s Speaker of the House, Rep. David Ralston district 7 about sweeping education reforms proposed by Gov. Deal’s Education Reform Committee (read the Commission’s report). Speaker Ralston helped organize the Fannin County Teacher Town Hall, the 2nd in a series question and answer meetings for his 3rd district teachers. Accompanying him were two legislators instrumental in delivering Gov. Deal’s initiatives to the Georgia Assembly: Rep. Coleman, who is Chair of the House Education Committee, and Rep. England, who is Chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Over well over 100 Fannin educators attended the Dec. 17th meeting.

The first Teacher Town Hall meeting in Gilmer County gave the Representatives and teachers state-wide a chance to test out proposals in the report. So, during the Fannin County Teacher Town Hall meeting, all participants, Speaker Ralston, Reps. Coleman and England and Fannin County educators, were more resolute in their remarks. Most Fannin County educators read from prepared questions and examples to ensure including real classroom situations they experienced and the effect that years of education reform initiatives and the proposed reforms have on their personal attitudes to teaching.

Speaker Ralston reiterated his fundamental disagreement with Gov. Deal about requiring merit-based pay for educators entering teaching in Georgia after 2017. He believes that educating children is not something that is quantifiable and measurable because public education takes all types of children. Additionally, Ralston feels that the uniqueness of each classroom’s student population makes it difficult to come up with a measuring stick applicable to enough classrooms to go down the road of merit-based pay.

Ralston also stated his unease with the recommendation that local school districts will be deciding the district-specific metrics for merit-based pay. This brought up an often overlooked aspect of merit-based pay; who is deciding the performance metrics. According to the Education Reform Commission report, local districts will have flexibility to set the metrics depending on the academic and community needs of the local district. School boards and system administrators will also have power to change performance metrics at any time and the right to incorporate training and education into these metrics. In fact, 178 public charter school districts have the flexibility to create their own performance metrics right now.

Ralston also showed more hesitancy in bringing some education reforms, especially merit-based pay, before the Georgia House this year. He cited his disagreement with some aspects of the report and that this year is an election year. Indeed, in the upcoming Georgia Assembly, the competition for floor time is competitive because casino style gambling and religious liberty bills are also slated for debate in 2016. He also repeated his strong message to Gilmer County educators that just because recommendations are in a report, it doesn’t mean that they are law.

A new subject England brought up is teacher retirement. He related that Georgia’s Teacher Retirement System Fund is one of the best managed funds in North America and he will not fix something that isn’t broken. Ralston was stronger about changes in teacher retirement. He said, “As long as I am in this job, we will not touch teacher retirement.”

As before, Rep. Coleman covered education initiatives present in the report. He, as well as England and Ralston, champion how the future reforms and newly-developed current programs recognize each student as an individual learner with a unique learning style and time line for successfully progression. Several times the three representatives acknowledged each student brings personal situations like a disability, home life and parental support, social class and English language ability that affect how the student behaves in school and internalizes knowledge. Coleman praised the current “Move On When Ready” program that gives high school students the opportunity to earn technical and college credit in subjects while still in high school. Fannin County School System Superintendent Henson agrees that “Move On When Ready” has increased the quality of education for Fannin students. Peppered throughout Coleman’s comments was that changing education takes communication. Educators are welcome to attend House Education Committee meetings and give comments.

Coleman offered more information about how the state will encourage, prepare, and stream-line the process for young adults to become educators. Among his suggestions are getting rid of “fluff” courses in teacher education, extending student teaching to one year and reducing university studies to three years. Possible teacher preparation pathways will become part of Career and Technical Education. Coleman, unlike the proposed merit-based pay metric, emphasized the importance of continuing teacher education. He says that his additional degree in Reading Instruction, which was encouraged through pay increase for additional training, is his most valued degree. Fannin County High School teacher Bubba Gibbs suggested increasing HOPE Scholarship funds for those studying education. All three Representatives showed interest in this idea.

Coleman unveiled initiatives in the report that incentivize teachers to try out innovative classroom techniques. Coleman didn’t say how incentivization nor merit-based pay will account for the fact that innovation can fail as much as succeed. Another way to bring innovation into the classroom, according to Coleman, is a district’s flexibility to hire adjunct instructors. He gave the example of hiring a local engineer who may not have teaching experience to teach one class of high school physics. He did not say how the state will

At this meeting, Ralston told Fannin educators Gov. Deal’s perspective on the state of Georgia’s education. He said that Gov. Deal feels the school system is broken. Rep. Coleman, however, gave a different example of the quality of Georgia’s education. He said Georgia was recently listed top nation to do business in because of the quality of its work force and training. He added that businesses wouldn’t be coming to Georgia in the numbers that they are coming if the education system is broken. Ralston feels that public education can always be improved, but he doesn’t hold the strong negativity that Gov. Deal does. Ralston also hopes that proposed initiatives will roll back the heavy-handedness of the State Department of Education’s in the function of local districts.

Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. England, presented funding aspects. First off, he repeated his stance on merit-based pay stating that, left up to him, he would scrap the teacher pay proposal. Once again, he stated that the report’s proposed district funding schemes will give flexibility with accountability. The benefit of flexibility is that money will follow the unique characteristic of a student, not just the number of students. For example, the reform report defines a new category of student, economically disadvantaged. This demographic category recognizes that districts with high poverty rates need strong afterschool academic, social, childcare and nutrition support. England recognized that in an economically disadvantaged school district, a teacher may only move a class two steps but those two steps are a giant leap. Though he gave several examples of benefits of flexibility, he did not clearly state where the accountability lay.

A new subject England brought up is teacher retirement. He related that Georgia’s Teacher Retirement System Fund is one of the best managed funds in North America and he will not fix something that isn’t broken. Ralston was stronger about changes in teacher retirement. He said, “As long as I am in this job, we will not touch teacher retirement.”

As before, Rep. Coleman covered education initiatives present in the report. He, as well as England and Ralston, champion how the future reforms and newly-developed current programs recognize each student as an individual learner with a unique learning style and time line for successfully progression. Several times the three representatives acknowledged each student brings personal situations like a disability, home life and parental support, social class and English language ability that affect how the student behaves in school and internalizes knowledge. Coleman praised the current “Move On When Ready” program that gives high school students the opportunity to earn technical and college credit in subjects while still in high school. Fannin County School System Superintendent Henson agrees that “Move On When Ready” has increased the quality of education for Fannin students. Peppered throughout Coleman’s comments was that changing education takes communication. Educators are welcome to attend House Education Committee meetings and give comments.

Coleman offered more information about how the state will encourage, prepare, and stream-line the process for young adults to become educators. Among his suggestions are getting rid of “fluff” courses in teacher education, extending student teaching to one year and reducing university studies to three years. Possible teacher preparation pathways will become part of Career and Technical Education. Coleman, unlike the proposed merit-based pay metric, emphasized the importance of continuing teacher education. He says that his additional degree in Reading Instruction, which was encouraged through pay increase for additional training, is his most valued degree. Fannin County High School teacher Bubba Gibbs suggested increasing HOPE Scholarship funds for those studying education. All three Representatives showed interest in this idea.

Coleman unveiled initiatives in the report that incentivize teachers to try out innovative classroom techniques. Coleman didn’t say how incentivization nor merit-based pay will account for the fact that innovation can fail as much as succeed. Another way to bring innovation into the classroom, according to Coleman, is a district’s flexibility to hire adjunct instructors. He gave the example of hiring a local engineer who may not have teaching experience to teach one class of high school physics. He did not say how the state will control for a district’s heavy reliance on part-time adjunct teachers.

Fannin County School System educators’ comments and questions proved their commitment to the education profession and Fannin County schools goes beyond pay. Fannin teacher Todd Garren said that Fannin County School System is a system of teachers that gives everything for their students and educators don’t enter the profession because of pay. They become teachers because they believe in the fundamental responsibility of a community to educate its future community leaders. To Garren, giving everything also means being a model of lifelong learning for students. Training costs money and takes time away from your own children; teachers should be compensated for that believes Garren.

Middle school teacher Barry Abott talked about how dire teacher recruitment and retention is for Georgia. He cited the drop in students enrolling in teacher education courses. At Kennesaw State University there is a 20% drop and a 15% drop at the University of Georgia. Additionally, he said, Georgia teachers have not had an across-the-board raise in seven years and, currently, Georgia teachers’ salaries are $4000 below the national average. The three representatives agreed that it is a problem in the making and promised to see if states paying more than Georgia are having drops in their teacher recruitment and how merit-based pay is affecting recruitment and retention in other states.

In a later interview with FetchyYourNews.com Fannin County School Superintendent Mark Hanson gave a franker description of how Fannin County educators feel. “We are at our wit’s end,” he said. Beginning with “No Child Left Behind” in 2001, Fannin County students and educators have experienced excessive testing, constantly changing methods of teacher evaluation and more accountability which requires hiring more administrators but not receiving more funding for the additional responsibilities. Above all is the vagueness for educators and students. More changes are on the way, but no one has given a consistent answer about what is new and what we need to do.

The vagueness for both students and teachers was underlined by Fannin teacher David Dyer’s example of the end of course tests that his 12th grade Economics students recently took. The test, required by Georgia, counts for 20% of the students’ course grades. Before the test, neither students nor teachers received information about how the answers are evaluated. Also, when the state returned test scores, students nor teachers knew how tests were graded. Because of this, the students still don’t know how they should improve and Dyer does not have the information which will help him improve his classes’ quality. Also, Dyer questioned that if the state cannot tell students what they are graded on, how can teachers expect the state to tell them what they will be evaluated on.

In terms of teacher recruitment and retention, several second- and third-generation Fannin teachers stated they have advised their children not to become a teacher. Their advice originates from the consistent changes and vagueness in Georgia’s education policies, not concern about pay. In fact, Superintendent Henson, a second-generation Fannin County educator, has given his 15 year-old daughter the same advice.

Teacher Sarah Welch showed how merit-based pay will affect comradery within a school. She spoke about her friend who teaches in Gwinnett County, a system which already uses merit-based pay. The Gwinnett County teacher and her colleague taught exactly the same subject with exactly the same course goals. In the end, one teacher received a merit pay increase and the other didn’t. The teacher with merit pay felt guilty because the only difference between their classes was the students.

Superintendent Henson agrees that merit pay will divide teachers. He prefers the traditional pay scale which uses training and experience to determine salary. “It pays out fairly,” he said.

Next, a Fannin teacher questioned why children have power to influence his salary through tests tied to merit-based pay. Ralston agreed that students already have the feeling for which standardized tests evaluate teachers’ performance and could choose to retaliate against teachers.

As in the Gilmer County meeting, teachers criticized the amount of mandated testing. According to the testing administrator for Fannin County, in the academic year 2014-2015, high school students took 7,619 mandated tests, which is approximately 9 tests per each of Fannin County’s 853 high school students. Superintendent Henson showed how testing takes away from instruction. Last year, 9th grade Fannin students lost 30 days of learning to testing. Henson hints at the riddle of using more tests to quantify teacher ability. He states, “Testing takes more and more instructional time away from classes to prove that teachers can teach.”

Since Ralston, Coleman and England’s examples of how proposed funding changes will affect Fannin County schools and citizens were vague, FetchyYourNews.com asked Superintendent Henson to explain. He said that Georgia has a lengthening tradition of underfunding education. His example is that in fiscal year 2003 Fannin County received from the 60% from the state, 30% from local funding and 9% from the federal government for education expenses; whereas in 2015, it was 37% from the state, 57% from the county and 3% from the federal government. His fear is under the guise of local flexibility, the state will send one lump sum of money to Fannin County and it will be up to the citizens to stabilize funding and maintain Fannin school’s excellent education quality through property tax increases. He says Fannin County is lucky because it is a resort community which has a low number of students compared to the property tax revenue thus, Fannin has not had to raise property taxes to fund education. However, he says, the day will come when Fannin County has to raise property taxes because the state has lowered funding and, due to merit-pay, increased competition among districts for excellent teachers.

In upcoming articles, FetchYourNews.com interviews Reps. Coleman and England about the Fannin County Teacher Town Hall meeting. You can watch the Fannin County Teacher Town Hall meeting at FetchYourNews.com

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